A MAN who savagely beat his former father-in-law in the head "like a punch bag" leaving him with brain injuries has been jailed.
Joshua Charles Jones set about Michael Evans when their paths crossed in Port Talbot — after hitting his victim with a hammer he then pinned him to the floor and punched him in the face up to 15 times, continuing with the attack long after the man had lost consciousness.
Jones, of Wern Road in Margam, had denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent, saying he had been acting in self-defence after Mr Evans had attacked him — but a jury of six men and six women took just an hour-and-10-minutes to convict the 27-year-old.
During the course of the three day trial, Swansea Crown Court heard Jones had been in a relationship with Mr Evans's daughter, Danielle, for five years, and the couple had been engaged. The court heard Mr Evans treated Jones "like his boy".
But the relationship ended in early 2015, and in the summer of that year Jones was convicted of assaulting one of his ex's sisters, and was made the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting both women.
On the night of August 14 Jones was drinking in Taibach RFC when he saw Mr Evans leaving a tanning salon he owned across the road.
The court heard that Jones went to speak to his former father-in-law — it was the first time they had met since the earlier court case — and the pair briefly sat in the cab of the victim's van talking.
But Jones then attacked the 54-year-old, picking up a hammer from the van and hitting the man in the face. The pair got out of the van and the confrontation continued in the road outside the rugby club, Mr Evans now in possession of the hammer and swinging it at his attacker.
The court heard it was at this stage that an off-duty South Wales Police call handler arrived on the scene in her car, and saw the men "pushing, shoving and shouting" at each other — she tried to defuse the situation by getting between the men, telling them to calm down, and taking the hammer off Mr Evans.
But her intervention did not end the violence.
Jones rugby-tackled Mr Evans to the ground, sat astride his chest and unleashed a barrage of punches at his face — between 10 to 15 according to the police staff witness — with the victim's head "bouncing off the road" with each blow.
'Life changing injuries'
Giving evidence to the court, the call handler said she thought Mr Evans lost consciousness after the first punch or two, but that Jones continued hitting him "like a punch bag".
The court heard that Mr Evans, from Cimla, suffered severe facial injuries and bleeding on the brain, and had been left with "life changing injuries" affecting his memory and reasoning skills.
Giving evidence at the trial Mr Evans told the jury he could recall very little of what had happened after the initial hit to the head — the next thing he could clearly remember was being in hospital some six weeks later learning how to walk again.
Judge Peter Heywood said he did not need a probation report before sentencing Jones, saying the defendant had lost his self-control and given his victim "a savage beating, continuing to punch him even after he was clearly unconscious".
He sentenced Jones to 10 years in prison, half of which he will spend in custody.
The judge commended the bravery of the off-duty call handler who intervened in the fight, but said the police "should learn some serious lesson" about the way the subsequent investigation was carried out — the van where the attack started was not forensically examined for more than a week, blood swabs from the hammer were lost, and Jones's mobile phone had somehow been wiped of data after he handed it to officers.
Read more at http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/jail-for-man-who-beat-father-in-law-like-a-punch-bag-and-left-his-with-brain-injuries/story-30004280-detail/story.html#ojH7QTJCzsAgTYUB.99
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